CCW training has apparently changed

[Double Naught Spy]

Have you ever been to a match or a class and you get together afterwards with some of the participant for dinner and realize that the person sitting across the table from you is the one who nearly shot off his own foot during a draw and begin to wonder that if that person identified a threat behind you and went to draw that you would have little confidence you would not be shot by the person across from you as that person attempted to negate the threat behind you?

I was in a Ken Hackathorn class. The person that almost shot off his own foot (or Ken's depending on how you see things, the shot being about 1 foot in front of the shooter and about 1.5 from Ken's feet) was actually a LEO out of NASA.

I would very much like to see legal CCW folks being more proficient and educated in gun handling, deployment and use for self defense. I realize that such matters probably won't ever be mandated by law and I don't see any states raising their qualification or testing standards, but we would be better off with proper instruction and regular training, not to mention practicing.

There are a few gun folks I fear more from in regard to getting shot than I do bad guys because I don't knowing spend time with bad guys, but do spend time with some of the incompletely competent gun folks.

 

[pax]

DNS ~

Absolutely agree with you that more training is a good thing -- and further agree with you that more training is better. I think that any person with a CCW permit is an outright fool if he (or she!) does not make a serious and concerted effort to get as much good training as is humanly possible.

But since it sounds as though you believe that some minimum amount of training should be required by law, I'd like to ask just how much? Would you accept, for instance, 40 hours of firearms training, such as is typical for police academy graduates to have? Would that be sufficient for you to feel safe about the fellow who sat across the table from you? (Apparently not. Not that I blame you!)

Given the theme of "more is better," would it be sufficient to require 'bout 40 hours of police academy firearms training, plus additional training on top of that? The additional training would be, perhaps, attending and maybe even graduating from at least one class given by a well-known, travelling instructor such as Ken Hackathorn. Or perhaps in lieu of training, being well-experienced at competitive events such as IPSC or IDPA matches. Would that be adequate to trust the guy who sat across the table from you?

Apparently not. Again, not that I blame you!

My point is that idiots are everywhere, and some of them have quite a bit of training and are still idiots. Even though every responsible citizen who carries a firearm will get training, and as much training as they are humanly able to do, there is no amount of training I can imagine that would stop an idiot from being an idiot.

"The poor you will always have with you," said Jesus. He should have added, "and also the idiots."

I'd also like to see a better picture of the problem that mandatory CCW permit training is intended to solve -- for instance, a comparison of the rates of bad gun usage in non-training states vs bad gun usage in training-required states. Not sure where you'd find such statistics, but anyone who lobbies for mandatory training should have some sort of hard numbers to fall back on.

pax

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. -- Henry Ford

 

[wayneinFL]

IMO, there are a number of people who are going to be dangerous, whether they have training or not. They forget their training, don't practice enough to stay competent, or become so familiar as to become lackadaisical.

Sometimes they buy guns. Even without a permit.

Sometimes they carry guns.

Even worse...

The gov't lets them drive on the road every day.

Some otherwise responsible people have had no training. And that isn't a good thing.

I like what Arizona did. Add firearms to the high school curriculum, so everyone has exposure to training. So that when he buys a gun at a garage sale, is showed one at a friend's house, finds one where it shouldn't be, or decides to get a carry permit, he is already trained in firearms safety.

BTW, last I checked, FL had a requirement to "demonstrate proficiency with a firearm". When I took the class, they made me fire one shot at maybe 7 feet. So not much of a (practical) training requirement.

 

[Marky]

C.W.P.'s here

We had to do the whole nine yards here, a 4hr. class and 4hrs. at the range. But it's all a money thing because it cost $110 here + $10 more for the picture permit. And the instructor said that a extra $15 tacked on this year for ''court house beautification''. What a load of bull.